


The World Beyond the Void

by Anonymous



Category: Dishonored (Video Games), Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Bisexual Female Character, Canon Non-Binary Character, Crack, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Humor, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polyamorous Character, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-06-23 07:48:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15601680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Emily finds an old painting of Delilah's in the Golden Cat and steals it.Technically, Corvo stole it, since he did all the carrying.Crossover with FFXV





	The World Beyond the Void

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JazzRaft](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JazzRaft/gifts).



> hey uhh remember when we were laughing about that crack au crossover yeah funny story actually

Corvo's too relieved to see his daughter safe and alive; too busy reeling from seeing how much of Jessamine's spirit lives on those perpetually curious eyes; too busy feeling  _all_  types of guilty that when Emily insists on taking a painting from The Golden Cat, it’s a far off possibility her request is anything but unreasonable. It's a large canvas as most Sokolov pieces are apt to be, but Corvo manages, and Emily's muffled laughter as they blink from rooftop to rooftop makes the whole balancing act worth it. 

Once at the Hound Pits Emily gets a run of the place with Calista while Corvo stretches out his shoulders and arms and back, sore from carrying it up to Emily's room.  It would have been much easier to Blink, but menial tasks keep him from dwelling on the potentially traumatic experiences his daughter's gone through since the day they took her.  People process things differently,  _and she's only ten,_ Void take him _, ten._

Which is how it comes to be that he’s dismantled his pistol and cleaning it—despite not having fired it  _once_  in all the missions he’s taken when Emily finds him again. She doesn’t make a beeline for his sword like she’s always wont to do; doesn’t even ask about the bone charms he’s found— just fiddles with the bullets he's lined up on one side of the table instead. 

Guess they’re having  _that_  conversation now.

"Find any good hiding places?" Corvo asks.

“Just one.” Emily replies, balancing four bullets on the back of her hand for a few seconds before snatching them out of the air.  “Neat, huh?”

Corvo nods.  She’d be a very adept swordswoman if given the opportunity to learn and practice.  Before everything went to hell he figured she wouldn’t need to learn so long as he was around.  Unfortunately he  _was_ around when they took her and Outsider or no Outsider—life is stingy when it comes to second chances.

Emily starts balancing the bullets on the back of her hand again. “So…are these all you have?"

"Can always buy more." Corvo says, reassembling all the pistol components together again.  Technically he  _steals_  the bullets, but that's not something one readily admits to their kid.

"I've been thinking about the painting." Emily says, catching the bullets again and lining them up on the table.  "We should sell it.  We can use the money to get you more bullets and stuff."

Corvo sets the pistol aside and goes to pick up the crossbow, returning with it to the table.  "Only if you're sure."

Emily crosses her arms, expression thoughtful.  "Well...I  _can_  always buy it back when this is over. Right Corvo?"

Corvo nods. In the distance he can hear Callista calling for Emily, telling her the bath is getting cold, her voice getting closer and closer.  Corvo gently nudges Emily with his elbow and Emily makes a face, but drags herself out of the room, closing the door behind her before Callista can peer in. 

 _When this is over,_ Corvo repeats internally.  He can’t help but chuckle.   

This kid’s going places, and Void take him if he doesn’t help her get there.

 

...

 

Sokolov is not one for being summoned.

Least of all by the brute who abducted him, but he isn’t immune to curiosity and boredom, either. Corvo suspects it's the latter that drives him up the stairs of Emily's tower three nights after his ‘arrival’, one haughty footstep at a time.  He's either failed to find anyone down at the Hound Pits willing to debate “metaphysical naturalism” or Piero’s gone and locked him out of his-- _their_ \--workshop again.  Whatever the case, he's here, and that saves time from brown-nosing.  (It’s not a skill Corvo’s invested time in mastering, anyway.)

Corvo closes the bedtime story he’s reading (it’s an Overseer’s covert field report tonight) and Emily who had been drifting off more out of boredom than fatigue, blinks awake at Sokolov's stomping.  She’s used to people fawning over her, kissing her hand. It makes sense for the irascible Sokolov to be a source of morbid fascination. 

Sokolov scratches at his beard, paces quietly back and forth in front of the painting, and, after a fashion, leans it forward a little bit so he can inspect the back. He chuckles, and returns the painting to the wall again, and it’s not the act of laughing that unsettles Corvo, but the fact that Anton Sokolov is a man who is rarely amused by anything and doesn’t smile unless he’s spitting out sarcasm. 

" _I_  thought it was pretty..." Emily asserts, chin slightly raised. 

“ _To Worlds Beyond the Void_ …." Sokolov's eyes are shrewd, as if he’s mentally mapping out every brush stroke, and glares at the signature.

“Not yours?” Corvo asks.

Sokolov scoffs.  "I paint portraits, not landscapes.  You need gold, don'tcha?”

He turns heel and skulks back out the door. 

“ _Copper-spoon_ ”, Emily hears him mutter.  It doesn’t  _really_  sound like a curse word, she thinks.  Corvo looks just as puzzled.

Emily doesn’t get to dwell on the significance of “copper-spoon” for very long, though.  A lot happens, and all at once in weeks that follow.  Havelock, Martin and Pendleton turn on the Loyalists, and Emily gets kidnapped again ("those fuckers"). The painting vanishes, and when Corvo brings her back from Kingsparrow, thoroughly forgotten when the fireworks begin. 

 

...

 

They crown her Empress.  The first order of business for ten-“practically eleven"—year-old Emily Drexel Lela Kaldwin is to abolish Sums. Then Geography. Then Philosophy. Corvo catches Callista as she faints (he’s standing closest to her when the announcement is made).

The ban on sums, which has repercussions on the philosophy ban, lasts right up until Emily’s disastrous first shooting lesson with Corvo where Piero tries to helpfully tell her ‘one needs sums to calculate how wind speed and direction and humidity’.  Sokolov, who is never far from Piero or a chance to one up him, remarks it’s a pity Piero can’t use sums to quantify how many times he’s spied on Callista. Emily realizes watching the two greatest philosophical and scientific minds of their generation bicker is the best way to be educated in the topic.  

Corvo dangles the promise of a sword lesson for perfect attendance to her lessons at the end of every month, and gradually decreases the waiting time until they’re sparring every evening.  It’s a compromise that benefits them both: Emily gets experience in fighting ‘monsters’ [Piero and Anton build her a moving metal soldier (dubbed ‘Pieron’ or ‘Sokolin’ depending on who you ask)], and Corvo worries a lot less about potential assassinations, and more about how the two can possibly come up with improvements to Pieron/Sokolin’s functionality to maintain the challenge. 

And if anyone has questions about Geography, Emily only lifted it because Corvo used it as leverage: said he’d sail to Karnaca with her only if she learnt how to navigate.  To date they haven't set sail, but that's only because Pieron/Sokolin hasn't outlived his usefulness. 

With the occasional Bend-Time here and there, time marches forward.

 

...

 

It is fitting, perhaps in some inexplicable twist of fate, that Empress Emily is twenty-five, newly re-coronated and Delilah-free and bored out of her skull, pending Pieron/Sokolin maintenances, when she finds  _To Worlds Beyond the Void_  again. 

Well, more like stumbles across it in the dark, because Wyman wanted to show her a  _Secret Passageway_  they were sure Emily hadn't found yet--which Wyman is correct to deduce--and Emily had gone along enthusiastically with because Wyman is clever and pretty and so much more  _cultured_  than her and she'd thought that was a fucking  _euphemism_ (invitation?).  

It isn't, but it doesn't matter because Six!Glass!Emily is horny and almost always gets her way.  They're in the West Wing library; Wyman in the middle of regaling how they came across the hidden button when Emily just rolls her eyes, drags Wyman in by the scruff of their collar and kisses them. There's only one hidden buttonthe Empress is interested in and Wyman laughs and then moans a little, because it's just like Emily to go straight for the throat.  

Anyway, because neither in their lust-addled minds give any thought to finding a light switch, Wyman trips backward over an ottoman(?), swearing, and Emily lands heavy on top with an 'oompf'.  Wyman, being the more sensible, more sober one, has the restraint to calmly push Emily off and start hunting around in the dark for the switch.  Emily roots around for more wine, because this has a similar size and feel to her safe room and safe rooms are meant to be stocked...wonderful; this one apparently isn't. 

"What is..." Her fingers curl around a dusty old sheet and she tugs at the same moment the lights come on-- both literally and figuratively. 

It's amazing how _sobering_ the rapid-fire memories are in Emily’s mind-- Mother to Golden Cat to Kingsparrow to...

 _...Copperspoon._  

She doesn't remember it looking quite so... _alive,_ is the only apt word to describe it, rippling like a pool of water from the slightest graze of her fingertips. Had the colors always been this vibrant?  

"Em," Wyman's tone is wary, and steadily growing further and further away as the Outsider's presence hums in interest in the back of her head. "Em I don't like this."

"I wonder what happens if I..."  Emily pushes, and the painting gives, swallows her hand right up to her wrist.

"Oh," Emily goes, almost absently.

The painting swallows her whole.

**Author's Note:**

> #ThisIsSoSadEmilyPlay[Bodies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF7zSqCeztY)


End file.
